The Saybrook Forum

Posts

Geographically distributed, functioning in a global context and ongoing engagement with internal and external professionals are apt key descriptors of the 21st century organization.
The complex pulsating networks in which an organization comes to life and thrives, in reality, is the organizations itself; while the planned and spontaneous connectivity that fills members’ daily work routines is the modern office. The workplace is wherever one is when connect via technology.
These are themes that have been examined over the past several months in the Rethinking Complexity blog.
Let...

The Third International Conference on Existential Psychology was held June 13-15, 2014 in Guangzhou, China, hosted by the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. The first International Conference on Existential Psychology (ICEP) began in 2010, and continues to be offered every other year at different locations in China. As with the first two conferences, the third conference was a great success, drawing presenters and attendees from around the world.
The ICEP has been an outgrowth of trainings and dialogues in China. From the outset, the focus has been on dialogue and exchange. Emphasis is...

We've got a glaring problem in this country and world. It's not our only problem and it isn't the cause of all sorrows, but today, it's one of the chief problems we face—and it is scarcely scrutinized by psychologists. The problem to which I refer is our socio-economic model for living.
In these days of school shootings, fanatical uprisings in the Middle East, and political upheaval at home, it may seem that these are all distinct events—yet, think again. In his signature work, Madness and Civilization, Michel Foucault proposed that ever since the Renaissance, the...

Editor's Note: Because of the Fourth of July holiday, the Existential Roundup is appearing on Thursday instead of Friday and the New Existentialists will not be publishing on Friday. Regular publication will resume on Monday, July 7, 2014. Enjoy the holiday weekend and thank you for your understanding.
Welcome to the Existential Roundup, where we bring you links to some articles currently trending that may be of interest to those in the existential-humanistic psychology community.
Any holiday weekend, such as the Fourth of July, often gives us just the excuse we have been looking for to...

Kirk Schneider (2008) writes that people in the current Western, postmodem culture have fallen into a dangerous game of "either-or:" either they see themselves in a reductionist, mechanistic way, a cog in the interconnected global machine, or they see themselves as omnipotent heroes of the postmodern age, so special and so powerful that they "should" be able to control everything within and without themselves.
Both views can be dangerous: to yourself, to your mental health, but also to the world around you, including your loved ones and all the others that you cannot or...

Quick to kindle, quick to calm down, an even quick to grow decadent, mean of letters [i.e., a type of scholar] can always find reasons and precedents from the classics to justify their shifts of allegiance. (Lu Xun, 1931/2003)
One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil. (Nietzsche, 1892/1966)
The impulse in contemporary times, and really through all of history, is to either vilify or idealize history, tradition, and the scholars of old. We see this in our classroom, our political debates, our movies, and our books and journals. Yet, whether the impulse is to vilify...

I heard it again, I don't remember where: isn't amazing how the Beach Boys could make all that beautiful, harmonious, uplifting music while their front man was so depressed?
Wilson's mental illness is legendary. The Barenaked Ladies famously penned a song about his breakdown: three years in bed gaining weight and doing drugs, possibly being exploited by his therapist. The exact meaning of the song escapes me now although it is playing nearly constantly in my head, especially the refrain: lying in bed just like Brian Wilson did, lying in bed like Brian Wilson did. Is Steve Page...

Welcome to the Existential Roundup, where we bring you links to some articles currently trending that may be of interest to those in the existential-humanistic psychology community.
Now that summer has finally arrived, the urge to pull what my British colleagues call “a sickee” often comes upon us—that desire to take an unscheduled break from work and responsibilities and enjoy the warmth and sunshine, possibly either by a beach, lake, or pool.
It turns out that according to new research reported in The Atlantic, that animals can turn “sickness behaviors” on and...

I write this just after the Summer Solstice, and I am on FIRE.
The heat of my excitement seems to come directly from the Sun in its annual prime. Varied, multi-hued, beautiful images—recognizably concrete or mercurially abstract—are bubbling up from the deep spring of my psyche, ideas like reflected glints of light from liquid crystal, tumbling merrily over each other in my head. I am drunk with sunlight, elated about the lush fullness of trees and plants all around me casting dappled midday shadows, the humid air lending my hair that certain wave I love, the scent of freshly mown...

My last two entries for the New Existentialists have focused on the nature and influence of fear, and how American culture has shifted from a more adventure-based society to a fear-based society. As a society—whether speaking about politics, religion, militarization, communities, neighborhoods, or individuals—we operate from an approach that is opposite of the Golden Rule—“let us do to them before they do to us.”
The current debate over what role the United States should play in the current events in the Middle East is a perfect example of this change in our...